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Appeared on: Sunday, September 08, 2013
Google Tries To Settle With EU With New Offer

Google gave European Union antitrust regulators a new proposal to settle an EU antitrust probe into the way it operates its search services.

"We received new proposals from Google in the previous week," EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said in an interview with Bloomberg Television today in Cernobbio, Italy. "If we are satisfied with the new proposals, we can advance toward an agreed solution in the coming months."

Google?s previous offer to label its branded search services and show links to rival specialized search services was rejected by Almunia in July. In the meantime, the European regulators are receiving pressure from Google rivals to seek tougher concessions from the Mountain View, California-based company.

"Once we have completed our analysis, once we will check that these new proposals are able to eliminate our concerns, we will tell Google what to do," Almunia said today.

The regulators are investigating whether Google promotes its own search services, copies rivals? travel and restaurant reviews, and has agreements with websites and software developers that stifle competition in the advertising industry.

Samsung is also in discussions with the EU to settle a separate probe over possible antitrust violations through its hold on essential technology patents to block Apple products.